Coach Thorpe – Thorpe Tennis

Thorpe Tennis 2025 Year-in-Review

My 17th year living and working as a tennis coach in Santa Barbara is now done-and-dusted. It always shocks me how quickly the time passes and yet how much I manage to squeeze in…this year was no different!

The sporting year began on a personal note, as I got to partner with my doubles partner from college (20 years ago?!) to compete in the Wilson World Tennis Classic L2 35’s Doubles Tournament. We reached the finals, taking wins over a player who reached #1702 on the ATP tour, a former D1 starter (Boise State), and a former D2 starter (UT-Dallas).

Following that tournament, I reached an all-time high USTA national ranking of #20 in my age-group, but highlight was getting to compete with my old buddy Aron in front of our wives and my childhood tennis coach Kurt, in the Palm Springs Area where I grew up!

There was little time for reflection though, as it was immediately back to Santa Barbara to finish up my Cate Winter Training Group. The 2025 edition featured 10 players and continues to grow as a resource for our boarders looking to increase their tennis opportunities during the off-season.

Next up, in was the start of my 16th season coaching at Laguna Blanca. This year, I stepped aside as head coach, ceding the role to my friend Mark Polowczak, who has been helping me with all of my programs over the last few years. As I gradually step back at Laguna, it’s really pleasing for me to see that the program is in good hands.

In 2025, the Owls managed to snag the final playoff spot in the Tri-Valley League, and went on to reach the CIF D5 Quarterfinals. This is the strongest playoff showing since we reached the CIF D4 Semifinals in 2022, and with a young team, it’s also a performance upon which to build in the coming years.

Throughout the summer months, a number of players from the Thorpe Tennis Community competed in USTA junior tournaments, with a particular stand-out being Alex Danely. In 2025, his UTR rating moved from below 4 to 5.3 as he won the Solvang Summer Classic and the Top Seed Tennis Academy Round-Robin, as well as finishing runner-up in the San Luis Obispo Summer Classic.

More recently, Alex partnered with Graham Clinger (another member of the Cate Winter Training Group) to finish runner-up in the Santa Barbara Winter Junior Championships. In that same tournament, another Cate player that I coach, Jade Wang, claimed the girls’ 16’s singles title!

The end of summer brought another personal tennis highlight for me. Most of you know that I compete with and co-captain the “Santa Barbarians” in the Santa Barbara Mens’ Interclub League. Since 2012, we’ve been on the hunt for our first doubles championship, and this year we finally got it!

Partnering with my co-captain Wes Barber’s son Curran Hall, we went 3-0 in the playoffs at line 2, including the title-clinching win against SBTC in the finals. In that match, we competed against a former D1 player and a former D3 nationally-ranked player, both of whom I’d lost matches against in the last year.

The match came down to a 10-pointer in the 3rd set, with the SBTC team going up 8-3 and 9-7 before we fought back to take the final FIVE points. In a prideful moment, I have to say that I hit back-to-back corner aces for the first time in my life and played like a banshee at the net during the tail-end of this tie-breaker. Sometimes, if you believe that you cannot be stopped (and you’ve put in the work), you can summon a moment of tennis invincibility. The body follows the mind, so take care what you think to yourself.

It was an absolute highlight of my tennis life to be able to come through for this Barbarian band of brothers that I love so much…even better to do it while partnered with the Barbarian NextGen, Curran, who carried himself so well throughout this season and was such a valuable member of the team. Also, I got to be taller than his dad (the first guy who invited me into the playing community when I came to Santa Barbara), if only for a moment!

Next up was season 17 coaching girls’ tennis at Cate. We had another exceptionally strong season, going 14-1 overall during the regular season, winning the Tri-Valley League, clinching a playoff berth for the 14th consecutive season (D2), and peaking at #46 of 373 schools in CIF Southern Section. Additionally, junior/sophomore combo Lisa Hasebe and Ivy Huang reached the final 64 doubles teams in individuals and the entire starting lineup went undefeated in TVL league play!

Off the courts, I got the chance to travel quite a bit (shocker, right?). Some highlights were:

Beach-hopping on Kauai and Oahu.

A number of visits to check up on the CasasThorpe Vacation Rentals in Merida and play some padel with local friends like Xavier.

3 visits to Austin, including attending both “SXSW” and “Austin City Limits” festivals.

Backpacking the 40-mile Trans-Catalina Trail in 3 days.

Finally getting to the end of the famous “Angels Landing” hike in Zion National Park.

Completing the “Rim-to-Rim” in 24 hours in Grand Canyon National Park

Completing a “new-to-us” backpacking route with Maria’s daughter Dali in Yosemite National Park

Making our triumphant return to European summer (our long-delayed-by-immigration-paperwork honeymoon), this time spending a week exploring the beaches of Crete and the bazaars of Istanbul.

And ending the year in our beloved Mexico, with visits to a number of areas in Jalisco, including Costalegre and Guadalajara with family for the holidays.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats on being a totally committed member of the Thorpe Tennis Community…and sorry I didn’t manage to shorten this post as much as I shortened my hair throughout the year. Regardless, it remains abundantly clear that this is more than just a tennis business…this is an extended family growing around and learning from this sport we all love. See you in 2026!

-TT

Thorpe Tennis: 2023 Year-in-Review

When I wrote my last year-in-review post in early 2020, I started by mentioning my mini-camp series, which had occurred 7 times in 2019 and was to occur 9 times in 2020. How could I have known that the series would be sidelined by COVID-19 and how much my life would be re-shaped.

In this next section, I used to write how many days I taught tennis during the year and my longest stretch of consecutive days taught (260 and 55 days in 2019, respectively). In 2023, I worked 365 days of the year at my new business, Casas Thorpe (have you ever been called at 3am by a guest who got drunk and locked themselves out of your Airbnb in another country?). However, I still found time to coach 36 different players between private lessons and my two high school teams at Cate and Laguna Blanca across 225 days.

Speaking of those high school teams, much has unfolded in the time since the last review. On the Laguna side, we recovered from two COVID-impacted seasons to reach the CIF D5 Semifinals in 2022 and in 2023 we finished at .500 or better for the 12th consecutive season!

On the girls side, we went just that little bit farther and took the 2023 CIF D3 Championship Title during my 15th season coaching at Cate School. This accomplishment by a very deserving group of young women is something I have hoped for and worked toward for 29 seasons of coaching high school tennis.

I take great pride in what they have achieved. It even fulfills a bit of a missed goal from my own high school career, where in 2005 I captained Palm Springs High School to a perfect 17-0 regular season record, before we suffered a devastating first round loss in the CIF D2 Playoffs. The record for Cate Girls’ Tennis this season, including playoffs? 17-0. Loop closed.

In the 2019 review, I gave a big thanks to Mark Polowczak for his help with my mini-camp series, and here again I owe him some praise. He’s now back from getting his undergrad at Texas Christian University and back in the Thorpe Tennis fold as my assistant at both schools and he played a pivotal role in our CIF Championship win this year.

In my 2019 review, I mentioned some rare personal tennis exploits, having played on clay in Argentina and Colombia for the first time and partnering with my college doubles partner, Aron Ouye, for a run to the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Open.

In 2023, we linked up again for the first time since that tournament to compete in the San Diego City Championships. While we lost to what was essentially the Estonian national team (current D1 players that were ranked 250 and 350 in the world in juniors), we were surprisingly competitive.

After that tournament, I resolved to not go 4 more years between tournaments and even entered a singles tournament for the first time since the Leslie Allen Santa Barbara Open in 2014! At the San Diego Metropolitan Open I played in the 4.5’s division and won three matches before having to default due to schedule conflict with a Cate match.

A few weeks later, my Barbarians summer league teammate Alberto Hernandez and I captured the Santa Barbara City Championships for my first-ever men’s open tournament win.

Alberto and I plan to defend our title in 2024 and Aron and I have our eyes on the Men’s 35-and-over hardcourt nationals in Arizona in April. Maybe I’ll even get the chance to play a tournament or two with Mark this year…I certainly like our chances against any other high school coaching staff!

Outside of tennis, after years of having flights cancelled and then needing to focus on my work in Merida, I finally hit my 50th country visited. Hiking hut-to-hut in Slovenia was a spectacular experience!

Also during that trip, I had the opportunity to visit Sardinia for the first time and return to Rome and Venice for the first time since childhood.

I even managed to tack on a trip to Scotland with my mom, who’d been longing to revisit that part of the world for a few decades. Can confirm, the whiskey is top-shelf, but also really enjoyed the nature!

Closer to home, I managed to survey various Mexican coastlines with my girlfriend, Maria. We spent time in Baja California Sur, Oaxaca, and Jalisco on the west coast, and took a trip up the eastern seaboard from Bacalar to Playa del Carmen.

Finally, I began to wake up from my endurance exercise slumber. Having completed 23 200-mile bike races between 2011-2019, COVID (and then building my new business in Mexico) almost completely derailed that part of my life. I realized recently that riding a bike 4,000 miles per year and doing insane 210 mile/16,500 elevation gain days (Central Coast Double Century) was a part of my identity that most of my current students didn’t even know about!

In 2023, I got back to nature and strenuous, all-day efforts, culminating in a 46.5mi/36hr backpacking effort in the Cascades from Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks in Oregon (day 1, day 2).

Just a few weeks earlier, I’d been bitten by the bug (literally and figuratively) in the Goat Rocks Wilderness of Washington, where I and a few family members hiked a 37mi/72hr route (day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4).

My uncle Keith got to revisit his 1985 PCT Thru-Hike and pass the torch to my cousin Phil, who will attempt the same hike in 2024. I’ve signed on to do support and hike a few sections of the PCT with Phil, so I suspect we’ll revisit this topic in the 2024 year-in-review!

While my work as owner/operator of Casas Thorpe Vacation Rentals has become my primary job over the last 3 years, it’s my sincere hope that my impact on the Santa Barbara tennis community through Thorpe Tennis will continue indefinitely. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to share what I’ve learned with others through the medium of tennis. I hope to see you all on the courts in 2024!

Santa Barbara City Championships Open Doubles Win!

It’s been 9 years since my last post about a tournament as a player. Since then, I’ve managed to distinguish myself with quite a lot more gray hair and I’ve also had the pleasure of working with hundreds more players on their own games, while mostly ignoring my own.

To be honest, I thought I was done with open-level tennis. Tournament tennis can be brutal and at 36, I’m now well-past the average competitor age for the open division. However, I’m very proud to report that my awesome doubles partner Alberto Hernandez and I have just won the Santa Barbara City Championships.

I got some great practice matches and hits in with Barbarian Tennis teammates Alberto, Petar Jivkov, my Cate assistant coach Mark Polowczak (also a former student!), and my old college doubles partner Aron Ouye. Further, I have had a lot of encouragement from my Cate girls as I wandered back into the wilderness of tournament tennis in recent months. I also received a number of congratulations from parents of current and former students, who saw the result through local media. My cup runneth over.

The Thorpe Tennis Community continues to enrich my experience in more ways than I could have hoped when I started more than 14 years ago. It has given me so many opportunities to share what I’ve learned about tennis and life, and to feel valued and supported. Thanks to everyone who participated and cheered me on…couldn’t have done it without you!

Trevor

Winter Sabbatical 2.0 Announcement

Hello there Thorpe Tennis Community!

As most of you know, exactly one year ago I made a Winter Sabbatical Announcement right here on what my high school students affectionately refer to as “the blog.” Giving myself permission to step away from 7-days-per-week teaching at Thorpe Tennis was an incredibly fruitful decision and I’ll be doing another “sabbatical” period this year.

One of the most important things I took from my extended time away was how valuable it can be to remove oneself from the normal rhythms of life that become automatic, almost by accident. As life advances, and with the knowledge that time is a finite resource, I am learning it takes a willingness to pause and consider in order to reach my full potential.

Many people say happiness is what we should be aiming for in the end and others say it’s achievement. I’m not wise enough yet to know the answers to life’s most enduring questions, but I know I feel both happy and accomplished when I’m maximizing my potential, especially when it’s in the service of others.

I came back from last year’s sabbatical feeling particularly invigorated and ready to give my best to my boys’ team at Laguna Blanca. We had a banner year, reaching the CIF Semifinals. My girls at Cate wrapped up their season last week and I think we had an excellent season as well. I also feel an added level of perceptiveness and curiosity when doing my private lessons; I think I’m a better coach and that’s good for everyone.

How will this affect Thorpe Tennis this winter?

While I’ve just finished describing how beneficial it is to occasionally step away, I firmly believe that routine is a critical part of development, particularly for young people. Success is not built on the back of intermittent efforts and I want to do what I can to make sure my students keep the ball rolling forward this winter.

That said, I’ll be in Santa Barbara and teaching more often than last year. I’ve already plotted out my intended schedule for winter (I may add a few more dates later) so that students can book in advance and plan for the period I’m away. I’m also trying to connect students to organize their own hits and match-play in-between lessons.

Thorpe Tennis Winter Availability: November 13-22, December 5-14, January 7-17, back full-time February!

What in the world are you doing with all that free time?

I have three objectives for this sabbatical:

Spend more time with friends and family.
Continue to build-out and optimize Casas Thorpe, my vacation rental company.
Leave significant unstructured time for reflection, ideally in nature.

Thanks for your understanding and I look forward to bringing my absolute best to Santa Barbara Area Tennis for years to come!

Winter Sabbatical Announcement

Dear Thorpe Tennis Community,

I want to let you know that I’ll be taking a “sabbatical” from Thorpe Tennis this winter to focus on other projects. I plan to be away from November 15th until the first week of February (with a few exceptions listed below).

As some of you already know, I’ve got a growing vacation rental business called Casas Thorpe. The project is currently composed of one house here in Santa Barbara and two houses in Merida, Mexico. Later this month, I’ll be adding two more Merida properties to my portfolio for a total of 14 bedrooms under management across five properties.

The early months are crucial for new properties and require my physical presence for redesign and prep work for the Airbnb market. Last summer when I added two properties to the portfolio while trying to maintain my teaching schedule in SB it was truly exhausting! Working 16 hours-a-day is not what most people do when visiting Mexico, but that’s what I did several times in order to be back here teaching with some regularity.

In addition, I am looking to expand to other markets and I have a personal life-goal to improve my Spanish to reach a conversational level. I feel that the rainy months, holidays, and days with the least light are the right time to be away from SB for an extended period and so I ask for your understanding.

After 11 years of being a 7-days-a-week tennis coach and taking breaks basically only when my students did, the 6-week forced layoff I experienced at the beginning of COVID reminded me that I should be intentional with my time and energy when I can control it. Now, a year-and-a-half later, I am continuing to build my ideal life.

What I am definitely not doing is signaling the coming end to my tennis coaching in Santa Barbara because I consider Thorpe Tennis and all of you wonderful people a crucial part of that ideal life. I gave my 20’s and early 30’s to this, but it has given me even more. I love my students. I love my high school teams. I love teaching. I love being part of the growth of other people and being in service to others is a key tenet of my personal ethos.

With that in mind, although I’ll be based in Mexico this winter, I will come back for several short periods to maintain continuity. The dates I’ve already set and for which you may book lessons whenever you’re ready are: November 27-December 1 and January 14-17 (I may add one more period between those two). In particular, I plan to host my traditional Thanksgiving Weekend Group Session on Saturday, November 27th, so mark your calendars!

Warm Regards,

Tennis is on its way back (and other bits of encouraging news)

It’s been more than two months now since I made the decision to put a pause on tennis lessons and I think its safe to say it’s been a real rollercoaster ride for everyone since then. In recent weeks, as outdoor recreation facilities (including tennis courts) have begun to open up again, I’ve started teaching on a one-on-one basis. I’m happy to report now that I see a lot of positive developments and can see a lot more tennis in our near future!

Tennis has a number of natural advantages over other sports and activities that considerably reduce the risk of Covid-19 contraction:

Tennis is a sport that requires no physical contact. Players can avoid ever coming within six feet of each other with relative ease.

Tennis, in the case of Santa Barbara, is played exclusively outside and that typically means a warm, sunny environment. Coronavirus research suggests that outdoor spaces are much safer than indoor environments as far as the passing of the virus. Not only do outdoor sports allow for the dispersion of droplets, but it has also been demonstrated by the DHS that Covid-19 has a lifespan of only 1.5-2 minutes when under direct sunlight.

In addition to the rapid inactivation of the virus, sunlight also provides the human body with Vitamin D, a critical element in a healthy immune system. It’s estimated that approximately half of all people living in the United States have inadequate levels of Vitamin D. Considering the areas that have been hardest hit (parts of the US and Europe that were deep in winter), there is a likely correlation between sunlight and the rate of serious complications from Covid-19.

Research conducted by Northwestern University concluded that healthy Vitamin D levels could reduce mortality rates in Coronavirus cases by 50%. It should also be noted that there is a very strong correlation between Vitamin D deficiency and the age-group most likely to die from the virus: those 65 years of age and up.

Recent data points to much lower mortality rates than previously thought, and those deaths are heavily predicated on age and pre-virus health condition, which means its fairly easy to comprehend the potential risks on an individual basis:

Today, I came upon a research study just published by USC, which determined the rate of infection in LA County based on antibody testing. Their data suggests an infection rate of 4.65% of the overall population of the county (10.6 million).

By my math, that’s about half a million people, of which so far only 1,821 have died due to Coronavirus. While every death is regrettable, that works out to a mortality rate of only 0.36% in LA County. I find this number to be very encouraging, because prior to antibody studies like this one, we were using “positive test result” as the denominator. In this case, there are 38,100 positive cases in LA County, which led to an estimated mortality rate that was 13X the number we now estimate.

In addition to the lower-than-expected mortality rates, data about susceptibility to serious illness also should offer most tennis players some peace of mind. The best data I could find regarding co-morbidities and age-grouping is a weekly report for New York City Coronavirus related deaths.

In the most recent report, it was found that only 0.87% of those who died were known not to have serious underlying conditions such as vital organ disease, diabetes, cancer, immunodeficiency, or obesity. In addition, 71% of those who died were more than 65 years of age. In short, if you are under 65 and healthy like the vast majority of tennis players, the risk of serious illness from Coronavirus is very low.

Speaking of antibody testing, it’s becoming more widely available (including in Santa Barbara) and early research indicates a high likelihood of at least short-term immunity following recovery:

According to the largest antibody study to-date, carried out by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, nearly all Coronavirus patients developed a healthy amount of antibodies to the virus. While not a guarantee of immunity, there is a high correlation and studies of other coronaviruses have consistently shown it to be the case. Dr. Fauci, head of the NIAID, has gone on record saying “it’s a reasonable assumption that this virus is not changing very much. If we get infected now and it comes back next February or March we think this person is going to be protected.”

For those concerned about “reinfection” stories circulating in the media, these are very rare instances that have very logical explanations in the form of statistically expected testing inaccuracies. In the South Korean case, false positives were registered due to sensitivity levels that picked up dead virus cells.

A few words of caution:

While, for the vast majority of players in the Thorpe Tennis Community, the risk of spreading or contracting a serious case of Covid-19 is close to zero, caution is still needed in order to protect those around us who do not fit the low-risk profile. It’s not just the individuals playing tennis, but also those they come into contact with off the tennis court that need to be considered. Also, while I’ve been quoting some of the foremost researchers in the field, there is still plenty we don’t know about this virus, so a gradual and thoughtful progression back to the courts is still advisable.

What’s Next for Thorpe Tennis?

For the time being, I will be continuing to teach only on a one-on-one basis, but I’m certainly hopeful that one day soon we’ll be back to our Sunday Sessions and Summer Tennis Camps. It has been so great to get back out with a few students these last couple of weeks and the time off solidified for me just how much I love my work!

Coach Trevor

Thorpe Tennis Girls Named Co-Player of the Year for Santa Barbara County

The Santa Barbara Athletic Roundtable has recently announced Carol Cai and Grace Fuss as the co-winners of the “tennis player of the year” award for the 2019-2020 school year.

I’m very excited for Grace and Carol to be receiving the player of the year award as a doubles team. Together, they were a top-16 team in CIF Southern Section this year and were also excellent Co-Captains of our team at Cate.

Thorpe Tennis Coronavirus Update

In the week since my last post, much has changed, especially as California leads the country towards “stay at home” policy. I had four predictions about Coronavirus and it’s impact last week, which all still appear to be spot-on, but there are a few new things to address.

The stay at home request from Governor Newsom means I’ll be moving to on-court tennis hiatus for the next four weeks (at least). Some of you have asked what that’s going to be like for me, as someone who is not salaried, gets paid by the hour, and isn’t eligible for unemployment benefits.

As most of you know, my business cycle is typically 30-50 days on/5-15 days off. I have already worked 71 of the first 80 days of the year and had planned to be in Europe for part of this upcoming period. While I might go a little stir crazy and I know that I’ll miss my students greatly, Thorpe Tennis is in a great position to weather this storm.

There are many other local businesses that are not in a similar position, as well as many employees of those businesses that must be very concerned about the immediate future. It’s my belief that while the government can play a part in maintaining some basic safety nets, the very best way to have a better society is to be a good neighbor (and yes, I definitely watched Mr. Rogers as a kid).

To that end, I’m buying up gift cards at all my favorite local businesses and tipping a little extra for that delivery meal. As our government discusses how to implement no/low-cost small business loans, consider that those of us with the resources can provide the same thing directly to the businesses that bring us joy through good times and bad.

If I had to guess, I’d say tennis will probably not resume until about May 1, at which point I think we’ll all be ready to quickly make up for lost time. If we take this moment to consider what a valuable part of life getting to share the game of tennis with each other is, hopefully we can build a tidal wave of enthusiasm to have a great summer season.

In the meantime, I will not be idle. I’ll be working on new drills and lesson ideas as well as studying and perhaps sharing a significant backlog of videos recorded over the years. Expect a post or two here, with some tips and concepts to consider for when you are finally able to pick up the racquets again.

Stay safe and stay sane Thorpe Tennis Community!

-Trevor

Finding Normalcy in Times of Chaos or How to Make a Positive out of Anything :)

As I look back on the last few years living in Santa Barbara, it seems like there’s an almost annual winter calamity that disrupts the peace in this beautiful place. Years of drought, then the fires, then the mudslide, and now we are being tested again.

I won’t get into how I feel about COVID-19, other than to say these four things: 1) I believe it will spread much more widely, 2) I don’t think it’s as mortally dangerous as the media churn is making us feel, 3) I do feel it’s important to take precautions to protect those with serious pre-existing medical conditions and the elderly, 4) I think the global economic impact, particularly in places like Venezuela where oil is food and things are already desperate, will likely kill more people than the virus itself.

What I want to talk about is not Coronavirus specifically, but a broader philosophy that gives me comfort in these times of chaos. It’s my hope that sharing some of my deeply held personal beliefs might help others and that’s something to which I have dedicated myself.

Many of you know I’m into doing things like 200-mile, single-day bike rides and multi-day treks through the Andes and all sorts of other madness. When some poor, unsuspecting soul asks me what I did over the weekend, they often find themselves in pain just thinking about what I tell them.

What you might not all know is the reason I pursue these sorts of activities. While it’s clear that you need physical strength to complete those sorts of tasks and I enjoy that kind of proficiency, what I’m chasing is mostly mental/spiritual.

I believe we as humans are better when we are tested. There is a clarity that comes with confronting uncertainty, a fog that lifts when you face a challenge where the outcome isn’t a given. In all phases of life (school, work, relationships), we progress through grappling with difficulties and persevering against obstacles. A life without challenge is a recipe for mediocrity and that’s part of what makes learning and competing in tennis such a beneficial tool for life.

Once you accept that each obstacle is actually an opportunity to progress, you have a distinct advantage that nothing and no one can take from you. You can be positive when others despair and you can be ready to lead when others are fearful.

Those who have spent time on-court with me should be familiar with the concept of reframing; you cannot lose when you set the conditions for success. You cannot be negative when you know that every thoughtful interaction, whether painful or joyous, yields a knowledge that will serve you in the future. My message to you all is to embrace the uncertainty and let it galvanize your inner strength.

Now, here is what I intend to do during this time of chaos: once this rain passes, I will continue to teach. I know many of my young students will be anxious and probably more than a little stir-crazy after the first few days away from school (even the most dedicated teenager cannot play video games or pursue social media perfection forever!). I know that many of my adult students will be looking for an outlet as well. I know that in this time of social distancing, we do still need to interact. I know that in this unusual time, we need some normalcy and tennis is just the thing!

I intend to do my private lessons as usual, as well as Sunday Sessions and the Mini-Camp that is scheduled for the first week of April. Despite there being no cases of Coronavirus in Santa Barbara County at this time, I will be keeping an eye on group sizes and will ask that anyone feeling sick please sit out until COVID-19 can be ruled out. We’re also going to be washing our hands a lot!

So join me in taking proper precautions, but continuing to live this life in a productive and positive way. We’ll get through this, Thorpe Tennis Community! Keep calm, carry on.

Trevor

Thorpe Tennis: 2019 Year-in-Review

This year, the main change at Thorpe Tennis was the development and expansion of mini-camps. The once-yearly Thorpe Tennis Summer Tennis Camp was a much-loved event each June, but was very difficult for me to prepare and run. This spring, I tested a more nimble camp concept, something that would be repeatable on a more regular basis but that included the beloved elements of the more traditional camp I had been organizing.

To my delight, that spring mini-camp was a huge success and we managed to repeat the model six more times throughout the year. By following the ebb-and-flow of the school schedule and other patterns I’ve noticed over the years, I am now able to offer the Thorpe Tennis Mini-Camp Series on nine occasions throughout the year!

I owe a big thank you to Mark Polowczak for his help through the year, both with the mini-camps and also our Sunday Sessions. While he is heading off to college in Texas, he’s already committed to assisting again this summer.

In 2019, I worked on 260 days, including one stretch of 55 consecutive days. I worked with players as young as seven and a few players old enough not to want to be identified by their age! In total, I coached 66 different players during the year, across two high school teams, junior tennis, college tennis, ladies doubles, and competitive age-group mens’ tennis. When I wasn’t working, I was traveling!

My boys’ team at Laguna had a season of growth, after graduating most of the previous year’s starting lineup, but still managed to extend our 50% or better win-loss record to eight consecutive seasons. Having finally made their way into the Tri-Valley League after free-lancing for five years, this group now look primed to make a run at winning that league in 2020.

During the summer, Thorpe Tennis was firing on all cylinders, with mini-camps galore. It was so great to see the progress of players like Caleb Silverberg and George Nicks during that period. In addition, much fun was had, all sorts.

I also had the chance to play some tennis, myself, logging court time in Argentina and Colombia on clay, as well as rekindling my Redlands University partnership with Aron Ouye for the Santa Barbara Open. We made the semifinals of that tournament in doubles, taking out recent grads from the tennis programs at UCSB and Cal Lu in the process.

The fall marked the first time I’ve had a high school team go undefeated. My girls at Cate went 10-0, defeating Santa Barbara, Dos Pueblos, and San Marcos high schools along the way. This was the 10th playoff appearance for Cate Girls’ Tennis in my 11 years coaching at the school and we’ve qualified for the CIF D1 Playoffs in each of the last three seasons.

Another real highlight of the year was the incredible run of senior captains Grace Fuss and Carol Cai in the CIF Individual Doubles Tournament. They repeated as Tri-Valley League Champions (and Carol completed her high school career with four doubles titles in four seasons!), before breezing through three rounds of CIF Regionals. They put in a devastating performance against their first opponents in CIF Sectionals, defeating a top-20 in Southern California team 6-0, 6-1 before their run came to an end in the the Round-of-16.

Both Cai and Fuss are being actively recruited by a number of college tennis programs and I look forward to seeing how their college careers take shape. That said, they’ll be sorely missed on the Cate Mesa. During their four years at Cate, the team went 45-3 (31-0 in league play), en-route to four Tri-Valley League Championships and a place amongst the top-30 teams in Southern California.

I’m as excited as ever to be starting the new year and getting to do it with such a great community of people makes it all the sweeter. Here’s to a new decade full of tennis!

– Coach Thorpe